Safety door stop



M. CARLSON SAFETY DOOR STOP Filed Feb. 9, 1956 June 16,` 1959 Wm/m @am I 2% @Mm-52515 am, r,

Patented June 16, 1959 l ic SAFETY DOOR Martin Carlson, Brookield, lll., assignor to George W. Housby, Jr., Chicago, Ill.

Application February 9, 1956, Serial No. 564,394

4 Claims. (Cl. 16-82) The present invention relates to what I prefer to call a safety or break-away door stop. A break-away door stop as the term is herein used is a stop to limit the movement of a swinging door to a central closed position under ordinary circumstances, but which is capable of yielding or breaking away to permit the door to swing opposite to its normal direction if the door is subjected to excessive pressure against the stop.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a novel limiting means which ordinarily positively limits the outward swinging movement of an inwardly swinging door to closed position, but which will break away sharply and permit the door to swing freely outwardly under conditions of excessive pressure against the door on the inward side, such as may occur during panic within the building. Another object of this invention is to provide a novel stop for centering a double action center hung door so that it swings in one direction only, but which permits the door to swing in the opposite direction under abnormal circumstances.

Still another object is to provide an easily installed unobstrusive doorstop having the above characteristics and which will be quite in operation and will not chip the edge of glass doors.

Still another object is to provide a doorstop having the above characteristics land which remains in such position that it does not obstruct movement of the door in either direction after it has once broken away until it has been manually reset.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of my invention.

In the drawing, in which similar characters of reference refer to similar parts in both views,

Fig. l is a longitudinal medial sectional view through a door stop which includes the present invention, shown as installed in a doorway in an overhead position; and

' Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the installed door stop of Fig. l, and may be considered as being taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

In recent years, particularly in public buildings, the use of center-hung swinging doors has become increasingly common. Such doors, because of the top and bottom pivot arrangement, swing either inwardly or outwardly and customarily are provided with some sort of door check or automatic door operator which will permit swinging in either direction. Such doors must have some mechanism to locate the door in alignment with the door frame when the door is at rest. This mechanism usually takes the form of a fixed doorstop so arranged that some of the doors of necessity swing inwardly only.

A disadvantage associated with this common arrangement in which some of the doors swing inwardly only isl that in the event of panic within the building some of the people therein may have difficulty finding an outwardly swinging door in their attempt to get out of the building.

There is also the comparatively common situation in which it is not possible to use any outwardly swinging doors unless they are deeply recessed into the building, since they would interfere with traffic n front of the building when open.

The present invention overcomes these ditliculties by providing a positive doorstop which permits a door associated therewith to swing only in the chosen direction, usually inwardly, under ordinary circumstances, but -in the event that the inward side of the door is subjected to an excessive loading, say a pressure of fty pounds, for instance, the doorstop will sharply break away and permit the door to swing outwardly in a completely free manner. Thereafter this doorstopy will not interfere with movement of the door in either direction until it has been manually reset to the original position.

Referring to Fig. l of the drawings, the top edge of a swinging door is indicated at 10. As shown, this consists of the usual metal channel frame which ordinarily surrounds a glass pane. Alternatively, the entire door may be a single unsupported glass panel, although such glass doors are less thick than the one shown. Regardless of the construction of the door, the door stop and its principle of operation are the same as will appear.

The door 10 is shown associated with the usual door frame 12 having an overhead channel member 14 referred to usually as a door jamb. The doorstop of the present invention, indicated generally by the numeral 16 is installed by cutting the pane to form a rectangular opening 18 and drilling four holes as is best indicated in Fig. 2, after which the doorstop as a unit is inserted upwardly through the opening 18 in an endwise direction and then turned so as to lie against the inner surface of the channel 14 after which it is retained in place by scre'ws 20.

The body member 22 of the doorstop is formed of a longitudinally slotted `generally rectangular block of metal preferably of a noncorrosive nature, such as aluminum for instance. As thus formed, the slot indicated at 24 may be of the order of half an inch wide and is open at the top and bottom of the body. Near the open end of the slot 24 a transverse pin 26 pivots a swinging latch type member 28. This latch at its free end is rounded so as yto clear the opposite end of the slot indicated at 30 excepting at the top and bottom. Thus the latch member 28 is free to pivot upwardly or downwardly within the slot 24, but cannot swing completely through the slot as is best indicated by the phantom line position shown in Pig. l.

In the operating position, the upper surface of the latch 28 is approximately parallel to and just below the top face of the block 22. The latch is thus retained by the sharply rounded nose 32 of a plunger 34 which is seated in a substantially hemispherical depression 36 formed in the curved end face of the lever 28. .Just to the left of the rounded detent 32, as seen in Fig. '1, the plunger 34 is provided with a comparatively large head 38 which is free to move within a drilled cavity 40 in the block 22. The plunger also has a stern 42 of small diameter which extends into a smaller drilled opening 44 which extends through the end of the block= 22. The `shoulder at the end of the cavity 40: serves' as the base for a coiled compression spring 46 the opposite end of which bears against the inner face of the head 38, thus tending to urge the plunger outwardly of the passage 40.

In the operating position, therefore, the detent 32 of the plunger seats within the recess 36 with considerable force and considerable effort is required to swing the pivoted latch'member 28 in an upward direction.` Once 3 it has moved slightly, however, so as to unseat the detent 32 from the depression 36, additional swinging movement of the latching member 28 is comparatively free until Ithe lower end of the curved surface at the free end of the latch strikes the end of the slot 24 as shown in phantom lines in Fig. 1.

The latching member is so shaped that when it is in operating position 'with the detent 32 seated within the depression 36, a downwardly projecting portion 48 extends below the top edge of the door 1'0. This provides a door engaging surface 50 which is positioned con- .siderably closer to the center of rotation at the pivot 26 than it is to the detent 32. This acts as a motion multiplying means thereby increasing the effectiveness of the spring 46 in preventing the `detent 32 from being unseated from the socket 36 as movement of the door toward the left tends to swing the latching member 28 upwardly. The advantage of this is that it permits the doorstop to provide considerable restraint against accidental outward movement of the door without the use of an excessively heavy spring 46.

This is important because it permits the construction of the device to be somewhat lighter than would otherwise be true, thereby reducing its cost, and in addition it makes it feasible to form the latching member 28 as a molded element of a tough plastic material, such as nylon for instance. Such materials have an advantage in this application both because they eliminate the possibility of chipping or marn'ng the top edge of the door 10 and also because they provide quiet operation and eliminate the click ordinarily present when metal doorstops are used.

As shown, the lower surface of the block 22 is shaped to provide a portion 52 which extends downwardly slightly and lits the opening 18, so that the lower surface of the extension 52 is approx'unately flush with the bottom face of the channel member 14 when in the installed position. This gives a neat installation and also provides a shoulder at 54 such that the force developed by the door 10 engaging the doorstop is transferred directly to the door jamb without producing a shearing action upon the screws 20.

vIn use, the doorstop remains continuously in the operative condition with the detent 32 seated in the socket 36 so that the downwardly projecing portion 48 limits swinging movement of the door 10 to the position shown. Loads against the interior surface of the door will tend to swing the latch member 28 in an upwardly direction about the pivot 26. No motion occurs, however, until Vthis loading reaches some predetermined excessive value, at which time the detent 32 will suddenly be snapped out of the socket 36, thereby permitting the latch member 28 to pivot comparatively freely about the pin 26 in an upwardly direction until the door swings freely outwardly. Because of the pressure of the detent 32 against the curved face at the free end of the latch member 28, the latch will be retained in the upward inactive position thereafter so as not to interfere with swinging movement of the door in either direction until the device is manually reset.

Manual resetting is accomplished by a small bar 56 which may take the form of a special tool or a screw driver, for instance, which is inserted into a socket 58 extending upwardly into the latch member 28 in a position somewhat to the left of the pivot 26. After insertion, the 1bar is swung into a vertical position so that the detent 32 is again seated in the recess 36. Thereafter the tool 56 is withdrawn and the device is reset for further operation.

From the above description of a preferred embodiment of -my invention it will be seen that changes may be made in the physical structure described in detail, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention and that Itherefore the scope of this invention is to be determined `by the scope of the following claims.

Having described Vmy invention, what I claim is new 4 and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a stop for swinging doors, means forming a body portion adapted for securement to a door jamb, an abutment member extending outwardly from the body portion into a position to intercept a door hinged to swing relative to said jamb, means pivoting said abutment member to said body portion to permit said abutment member to swing about said pivot into a nonintercepting position with respect to said door under the inuence of door pressure against said abutment member, means forming a. releasable latch normally operating to prevent movement of said abutment member away from said door intercepting position until the pressure of the door against said abutment member is substantially greater than is encountered in normal door operation, said latch comprising a pair of elements adapted in one position to interengage, one of said elements being upon said body por- 'tion and the other of said elements -being upon said abutment member, one of said elements being movable into and out of engagement with the other of said elements, spring loading means resiliently urging said movable element into engaging relation with the other of said elements, and said elements having a camming surface therebetween to overcome said spring loading and disengage said latching elements when a force tending to move one of said elements relative to the other exceeds a predetermined amount.

2. In a stop for swinging doors, means forming a body portion adapted for securement within a hollow door jamb, an abutment member extending outwardly from the body portion and away from said jamb into a position to intercept a door hinged to swing relative to said jamb,

means pivoting said abutment member to said body port'ion to permit said abutment member to swing about said pivot into a nonintercepting position with respect to said door under the influence of door pressure against said abutment member, resilient detent means normally operating to prevent movement of said abutment member away from said door intercepting position until the pressure of the door against said abutment member is substantially greater than is encountered in normal door operation, said resilient detent means comprising a pair of elements adapted in one position to interengage, one of said elements being upon said body portion and the other of said elements being upon said abutment member, one of said elements being movable into and out of engagement with the other of said elements, spring loading means resiliently urging said movable element into engaging relation with the other of said elements, and said elements having a camming surface therebetween to overcome said spring loading and disengage said elements when a force tending to move one of said elements relative tothe other exceeds a predetermined amount.

3. In a stop for swinging doors, means forming a body portion adapted for securement to a door jamb, an abutment member extending outwardly from the body portion into a position to intercept a door hinged to swing relative to said jamb, means pivoting said abutment member to said body portion to permit said abutment member to swing about said pivot into a nonintercepting position with respect to said door under the influence of door pressure against said abutment member, resilient detent means normally operating to prevent movement of said abutment member away from said door intercepting position until the pressure of the door against said abutment member is substantially greater than is encountered in normal door operation, said detent means comprising a pair of elements adapted in one position to interengage, one of said elements being upon said body portion and the other of said elements being upon said abutment member, one of said elements being movable into and out of engagement with the other of said elements, spring loading means resiliently urging said movable element into `engaging relation with -the other of said elements, and said elements having a camming surface therebetween to overcome said spring loading and disengage said latching elements when a force tending to move one of said elements relative to the other exceeds a predetermined amount, said abutment member having provision for temporary attachment of a tool for manually resetting said abutment member to door intercepting position.

4. In a stop for swinging doors, means forming a body portion adapted for securement to a door jamb, said body portion having a slot extending therethrough, an abutment member lying partially within said slot and extending outwardly from the body portion into a position to intercept a door hinged to swing relative to said jamb, means pivoting said abutment mem-ber to said body portion to permit said abutment member to swing freely about said pivot into a non-intercepting position with respect to said door under the inuence of door pressure against said abutment member, resilient detent means housed in said body portion normally operating to prevent movement of said abutment member away from said door intercepting position until the pressure of the door against said abutment member is substantially greater than is encountered in normal door operation, said detent means comprising a pair of elements adapted in one position to interengage, one of said elements being upon said body portion and the other of said elements being upon said abutment member, one of said elements being movable into and out of engagement With the other of said elements, spring loading means` resiliently urging said movable element into engaging relation with the other of said elements and said elements having a camming surface therebetween to overcome said spring loading and disengage said latching elements when a force tending to move one of said elements relative to the other exceeds a predetermined amount, and said abutment member having a stop means thereon coacting with said body portion to prevent said abutment member from swinging suciently to completely disengage said detent from said abutment member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,513,070 Weissinger June 27, 1950 

